Beautiful People

French electronic music producer David Guetta rose to prominence atop the sparkling wave of DJs who combined Daft Punk's sleek house music with a pinch of electroclash punch at the start of the 21st century. Achieving international crossover success during the late-2000s EDM boom with the chart-toppers One Love and Nothing But the Beat, his house anthems became fixtures on the dance charts into the 2010s, often featuring famous names from the worlds of pop and rap, including frequent collaborators Nicki Minaj, Sam Martin, Sia, Morten, Chris Willis, Rihanna, Kelly Rowland, and Afrojack. Along with the latter two artists, Guetta also won a pair of Grammy Awards in 2011. In 2020, he released the EP New Rave and teamed up with Sia for the ebullient international synthwave/pop hit "Let's Love." In 2022, he hit the Top Ten of Billboard's Hot 100 with "I'm Good (Blue)" featuring Bebe Rexha and again paired with the singer in 2023 for the Grammy-nominated "One in a Million."

A native of Paris, the artist born Pierre David Guetta had been DJ'ing in France playing popular tunes, but his brain was particularly rewired in 1987 when he heard a Farley Jackmaster Funk track on French radio. He taped the track, brought a copy to a gig, and promptly cleared the floor with it during one of his own sets. Things loosened up a year later when acid house came to France and Guetta successfully promoted his own club nights. It was during one of those nights in 1992 that he met Robert Owens, a Chicago-based house legend who was touring Europe at the time. Guetta played Owens some of his own tracks, and Owens picked one he liked enough to sing over. The result was "Up and Away," a minor hit that lurked in garage DJ crates for the next four years.

Guetta's carefree attitude -- that he only produces good music while he's having casual fun -- kept the DJ from releasing anything until 2001's "Just a Little More Love." The track featured American gospel singer Chris Willis, who'd met Guetta while on vacation in France. Another slow-burner, "Just a Little More Love," kept popping up in sets for the next two years, first in an electro version and later in a pumped-up Wally Lopez remix. During this time, Guetta snuck out a bootleg remix of David Bowie's "Heroes," retitled "Just for One Day." Bowie gave the go-ahead to release the track officially, and Guetta soon had a massive hit on his hands. Guetta featured the liberated boot on his first mix CD, Fuck Me I'm Famous, named after Guetta's successful Ibiza-based party.

The fun-loving slacker DJ finally got around to releasing a collection of his own productions in 2004, Just a Little More Love, on Astralwerks. Guetta Blaster arrived that same year, followed by Poplife in 2007. Chris Willis sang lead vocals on the latter album, which spun off multiple dance singles in multiple countries. Fuck Me I'm Famous: International, Vol. 2 was then released in July 2008, giving listeners a taste of the stylish sounds that orchestrated Guetta's summer club events in Ibiza. A year later, he released One Love, a platinum-selling album featuring the singles "When Love Takes Over" with Kelly Rowland, "Sexy Bitch" with Akon, and "Gettin' Over" with Chris Willis.

In 2010, Guetta received five nominations at the 52nd Grammy Awards, two of them related to the One Love album and the other three for his work on the Black Eyed Peas' massive worldwide hit "I Gotta Feeling." That same year, One Love was reissued as One More Love, featuring a bonus disc of remixes and new tracks. A superstar guest list featuring Akon, Lil Wayne, Flo Rida, Usher, Chris Brown, and others would figure into his 2011 release Nothing But the Beat, but this time the DJ's songwriting was inspired by dramatic rock bands like Coldplay.

In 2014, Guetta released three singles on his own Jack Back label, all of which were rounded up on that year's Lovers on the Sun EP. Later that year, Guetta released his sixth studio album, Listen. Perhaps as a reaction to inadvertently finding himself a sort of unofficial godfather to the burgeoning EDM movement, the record saw him branching out of his electro-house comfort zone, experimenting with elements of hip-hop, alternative rock, R&B, and acoustic instrumentation, and featuring guest artists as diverse as Nicki Minaj, Emeli Sandé, Sia, the Script, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. In 2015, the LP was reissued as Listen Again with new songs and remixes added to the track list, including "Bang My Head" featuring Fetty Wap and Sia.

Over the next few years, Guetta issued a continuous stream of singles. In 2016, notable releases included the official UEFA Euro anthem "This One's for You" featuring Zara Larsson, which topped the charts in France, Germany, and Switzerland; "Shed a Light" with Robin Schulz and Cheat Codes; and "No Worries" with Disciples. The following year, Guetta issued a handful of additional collaborations with Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne ("Light My Body Up"), Afrojack ("Another Life"), Justin Bieber (the platinum "2U"), Kiiara ("Complicated"), and Charli XCX and French Montana ("Dirty Sexy Money"). He kicked off 2018 with a pair of Sia collaborations (a remix of "Helium" and "Flames"), while also scoring another Top Ten hit for "Mad Love" with Sean Paul and Becky G. His seventh set, the aptly titled 7, arrived in September. In addition to including a some of his previously released singles -- "2U" and "Flames" among them -- Guetta also recruited Anne-Marie, Bebe Rexha, J Balvin, Jason Derulo, Martin Garrix, Jess Glynne, Steve Aoki, Lil Uzi Vert, G-Eazy, and many more for the effort. A bonus second disc of material was also bundled with 7, collecting a dozen tracks recorded as his alter ego Jack Back.

Early 2019 saw Guetta team up with Spanish DJ Tom Staar for the single "This Ain't Techno." The EP New Rave arrived in July 2020 and included the track "Kill Me Slow" featuring Morten. Later that year, he worked with Sia on the Top Ten dance single "Let's Love." More well-received singles followed, including 2021's "Heartbreak Anthem" with Galantis and Little Mix, 2021's "Remember" with Becky Hill, and 2022's "Crazy What Love Can Do," again with Hill and Ella Henderson. Also in 2022, Guetta released "You Can't Change Me" with Morten and Raye and topped the Hot Digital Songs chart alongside Bebe Rexha with "I'm Good (Blue)." He appeared on multiple charts in 2023 with "Baby Don't Hurt Me," a collaboration with British singer Anne-Marie and American rapper Coi that sampled Haddaway's 1993 hit "What Is Love." He also reunited with Rexha for "One in a Million," which cracked the Top Ten of Billboard's Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. By the end of the year, both "Baby Don't Hurt Me" and "One in a Million" had picked up Grammy nominations for Best Pop Dance Recording. In 2024, he scored a Top 40 after hit joining forces with OneRepublic on "I Don't Wanna Wait." More standalone tracks followed, including "Feeling Good" with Hypaton, "Man in Finance" with Girl on Couch and Billen Ted, and a cover of Alphaville's "Forever Young" with Ava Max. In 2025, he reunited with Sia, scoring a U.K. dance chart hit with "Beautiful People." ~ Neil Z. Yeung

Australian singer/songwriter Sia is an inimitable presence on the pop scene with an unmistakable voice and a sound that has yielded scores of hits for both herself and a long list of collaborators. Through the course of her career, she swiftly rose from being a guest vocalist to a solo artist and accomplished hitmaker for the likes of Beyoncé, Celine Dion, Kanye West, Eminem, and countless others. On albums such as 2001's Healing Is Difficult and 2004's Colour the Small One -- which featured one of her definitive songs, "Breathe Me" -- she established herself on the indie scene with her distinctively vulnerable voice, one that would soon crossover into the pop mainstream. As time went on, she expanded her range to include the livelier fare of 2010's We Are Born and 2014's 1000 Forms of Fear, which included her signature Grammy-nominated song "Chandelier." In addition to these solo efforts, she also became an in-demand pop songwriter, with Rihanna's 2013 single "Diamonds" among the biggest hits she wrote for other artists. She penned so many songs for others that the ones left unused were reclaimed and recorded by the artist herself, landing on 2016's This Is Acting, home to "Cheap Thrills," her first single to top the Billboard 100 chart. By 2021, she'd branched out to filmmaking, directing and co-writing Music, which was accompanied by a soundtrack of the same name. In 2024, she released her tenth solo effort, the triumphant Reasonable Woman.

The Adelaide-born Sia Furler was raised in an artistic household by a musician father and art lecturer mother. Influenced by Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and Sting, she started performing on the local jazz circuit in the '90s as a vocalist for the band Crisp. An attempt to launch a solo career in 1997 didn't pan out, however, and she eventually hopped on a plane to London. While there, she landed a gig as a backup singer for Jamiroquai and inked a solo contract with DancePool, a sublabel of Sony. Sia released her first single "Taken for Granted" in early 2000. Although the song only peaked at number 100 on the Australian charts, it rose to number ten in the U.K. and increased European demand for her debut album, Healing Is Difficult, which followed in 2001. At the same time, a string of high-profile names in the British music scene began asking for Sia's services; offers from Zero 7 and William Orbit ensued. Although some projects only called for Sia to sing on one song, her association with Zero 7 proved to be a recurring event. She ultimately remained with Zero 7 for three albums, serving as the group's go-to vocalist while also furthering her own career with solo releases like Colour the Small One and Some People Have Real Problems.

Meanwhile, Sia also began building an audience in America. One of the songs from Colour the Small One, "Breathe Me," gained attention when it was used in the elaborate final scene of the Six Feet Under series, and the resulting buzz allowed her to enjoy a successful stateside tour. That tour was documented on her first live release, Lady Croissant, in 2007. By the following year, Sia's American audience had increased to the point that Some People Have Real Problems, her third album, debuted at number 26.

Zero 7 began working on another album in 2009, but Sia had already shifted most of her attention to furthering her own career, and the band hired another singer in her place. Working alongside bassist Sam Dixon, she boosted her songwriting cred by writing several songs for Christina Aguilera, who put the songs on her 2010 release, Bionic. Sia also continued writing songs for herself, and We Are Born marked her most upbeat album to date in 2010. It also went on to become very successful, charting around the world and going to number two in Australia. Additionally, she took further steps into the mainstream with a string of hit collaborations with Flo Rida ("Wild Ones") and David Guetta ("Titanium"), the latter of whom became a key artistic partner in the years to come.

As the spotlight grew hotter and brighter, Sia -- whose shy and withdrawn personality was at odds with her public persona -- began to struggle with the pressures of fame. She spent the next few years out of the spotlight, continuing her parallel career as a backroom songwriter for the likes of Madonna, Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Celine Dion, and Rihanna, for whom she wrote the worldwide number one smash hit "Diamonds." In 2013, she started on a new album, working once again with producer Greg Kurstin.

Wary of further emotional anguish brought upon by her newfound level of public exposure, she negotiated a near-unprecedented contract with RCA stipulating that she would not have to tour or do press; her first public appearance to promote the album on The Ellen DeGeneres Show saw her perform her single "Chandelier" with her back to the audience. She also began donning an oversized wig that obscured most of her face, inadvertently creating her own signature look. Penned with frequent collaborators Jesse Shatkin and Kurstin, "Chandelier" was a hit, landing on her sixth full-length album 1000 Forms of Fear, which arrived in July 2014. The LP promptly hit number one in several countries, including the U.S. and Australia, and spawned additional hits "Big Girls Cry" and "Elastic Heart." Furler and Kurstin also reworked existing music and wrote three new songs for the 2014 adaptation of the Broadway musical Annie; one of their new compositions, "Opportunity," was nominated at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards for Best Original Song. At the 77th Annual Grammy Awards, "Chandelier" scored nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, and Best Music Video.

Empowered by the acclaim earned by 1000 Forms of Fear, Sia began work on its follow-up in early 2015. Late that year, the singles "Alive" (which Furler co-wrote with Adele) and "Bird Set Free" heralded the January 2016 release of This Is Acting, a pop-oriented set of previously unrecorded songs she wrote for artists such as Katy Perry, Rihanna, and Adele. In July, "Cheap Thrills" -- the second official single, originally intended for Rihanna -- became Sia's first Billboard 100 chart-topper and was certified platinum around the world. A deluxe edition of the album arrived soon after, bolstered by "The Greatest" featuring Kendrick Lamar.

The following year, Sia released several non-album tracks, including the Zayn duet "Dusk 'Til Dawn," the Stargate and P!nk collaboration "Waterfall," and soundtrack contributions for films such as Wonder Woman and My Little Pony. By the end of 2017, she and Kurstin reunited for Everyday Is Christmas, a set of original holiday songs including the single "Santa's Coming for Us." The album was released on Sia's Monkey Puzzle imprint that November. In 2018, Sia teamed up with Labrinth and Diplo under the moniker LSD and issued the single "Thunderclouds," while also contributing the song "Helium" (her sixth collaboration with David Guetta) to the soundtrack for Fifty Shades Darker. The LSD project continued to expand with additional singles "Genius," "Audio," and "No New Friends," with a full-length effort landing in April 2019. The island-kissed psychedelic dance-pop of Labrinth, Sia & Diplo Present LSD included all previously released singles, as well as a remix with Lil Wayne.

In January 2020, she contributed the song "Original" to the Doolittle soundtrack. Later that year, she issued "Together," the first single from her forthcoming film 2021's Music: Songs from and Inspired by the Motion Picture, which she directed and co-wrote. The soundtrack was further promoted with the singles "Courage to Change," the Burna Boy-featuring "Hey Boy," and yet another joint Guetta track, "Floating Through Space." In between full-lengths, her 2016 track "Unstoppable" became an unexpected viral hit on social media, landing back on the radio and pushing past a billion plays on streaming services. By 2022, the song had topped the Adult Contemporary and Adult Top 40 charts in the U.S. With "Unstoppable" still ubiquitous on pop radio, Sia began her next album era with her tenth solo set arriving in 2024. Boosted by the Top Ten hit "Gimme Love" and the Kylie Minogue duet "Dance Alone," Reasonable Woman returned Sia to the level of intensity and quality of her mid-2010s output. She was once again joined by Kurstin and Shatkin, along with Rosalía, Labrinth, Chaka Khan, Missy Elliot, Tierra Whack, Kaliii, Jimmy Jolliff, and Paris Hilton. ~ Neil Z. Yeung